'The Boys Are Back' review: Clive Owen as cool single dad

October 9, 6:00 AMAtlanta Movies ExaminerRyan McNally

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Cruising down an Australian beach in his car, a man gets yelled at by sunbathers, who ask if he’s lost his mind. As the camera pulls back, you see the reason for their consternation: A young boy is riding on the hood of the moving vehicle, whooping for joy as he’s sprayed by the ocean water his father is driving through. Is the man behind the wheel the coolest dad ever, or an irresponsible lunatic?

Actually, he’s newly widowed father Joe Warr, a man searching for ways to insert a little happiness into his son’s life—and his own. In the rousing new drama The Boys Are Back, dad is played by Oscar nominee Clive Owen, and he’s a wisecracking sportswriter who has spent much of his 6-year-old son’s childhood on the road. But that changes when his wife is stricken with cancer. In a series of poignant flashbacks, we see Joe’s affection for his spouse as she withers away before his eyes.

After her death, a devastated Joe sets about caring for his young son (Nicholas McAnulty), a task that won’t be easy without his nurturing wife, who not only provided the family’s emotional backbone but also did all the cooking and household chores. Things get even hairier when Joe gets a call from his first wife, who informs him that the teen son he hasn’t seen in years (George Mackay) will be making an extended trip to Australia to visit dear ol’ dad.

How to deal? Joe develops his own dangerous book for raising boys, which can be summed up by his parental motto: Just say yes. But as life’s complexities threaten to challenge his mantra, Joe finds navigating the turbulent emotions and crazy scenarios that arise more difficult than expected.

We’ve seen Owen as the ultimate smooth operator (Croupier, Duplicity), but playing single dad to two precocious kids requires a different brand of mental dexterity. In The Boys Are Back, Owen shows he’s also adept at playing a family man, whether digging deep to expose Joe’s raw grief, showing his sly delight in raising the ire of neighborhood moms, or keeping the story tough when sappiness threatens to creep in. And the haunted presence Owen has displayed in roles from Children of Men to Closer to The Bourne Identity adds further texture to his characterization. It’s a strong performance, and Owen receives solid support from young costars McAnulty and Mackay, as well as Julia Blake as the mother-in-law who shares Joe’s grief but stands at odds with his parenting approach.

Make no mistake, Joe is hardly an angel. Credit Boys Are Back screenwriter Allan Cubitt and director Scott Hicks for at least flirting with Joe’s dark side, from his penchant for boozing to his infidelity in his first marriage. The fine job the creative duo does balancing dramatic and comedic elements throughout helps ensure that the movie doesn’t devolve into treacly “boys will be boys” pontification.

Hicks, who helmed the 1997 Best Picture Oscar nominee Shine, will undoubtedly get some critical flak for employing a narrative device in which Joe occasionally converses with his dead wife. But since the scenes are nicely underplayed, the technique plays as an interesting choice for showing how Joe grapples with his wife’s passing, rather than lazy storytelling.

In fact, the only scene that really rings false is a third-act train station sequence that bows to Hollywood conventions in a way the rest of the film largely avoids. But overall, Hicks takes a leisurely, low-key approach to the boys’ maturation and Joe’s parental evolution that plays out in an affecting fashion. The frequently funny and touching The Boys Are Back stands as a welcome reminder that even in tough times, letting the wind rush through your hair a little can be a liberating experience.

Grade: B+

The Boys Are Back trailer:



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The Boys Are Back opens in Atlanta on October 9 at the United Artists Tara Cinemas.